Berkeley County kindergarten teachers describe rapid early academic and social gains

Two Berkeley County Schools kindergarten teachers described rapid academic and social development among their students during remarks captured in the meeting transcript.

Patricia Edwards, a kindergarten teacher at Jaredstown who has taught for 31 years, said classroom routines and social-emotional work form the foundation for later learning. "If they don't have that strong foundation, they're not gonna be able to build anything else solid," Edwards said. "Berkeley County Schools for kindergarten is an amazing place to start."

Dawn Blackburn, a kindergarten teacher at Opekham with 25 years' experience, said teachers use small challenges and guided activities to prompt unexpected gains in writing and expression. "We had a challenge today. We're gonna pick a directed drawing, and you're gonna write me a sentence about it," Blackburn said. "Literally, I had kids writing 3 or 4 coherent sentences to go with that picture. Like, they don't even know that they're doing it. And then when they realize that they did it, now I can't get them to stop writing."

Both teachers emphasized routines, partner work and celebrating small successes as classroom practices that encourage empathy, friendship and creativity alongside early literacy and numeracy. Edwards described starting with social skills before moving to addition, subtraction and reading so students "soak it all in."

The teachers' remarks in the transcript focused on teaching practice and student outcomes; there were no formal actions, votes or references to statutes recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.